Information for Glock users

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Whitewolf 508

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My police department received a bulletin that a Delaware PD had problems with several Glock 22s while on the firing range this week. The report was that 2 out of 17 had the barrel lugs shear off while in use. The ammunition used was WW 155 grain hollowpoints. It is too early to tell what Glock will do to remedy the situation.
 
The 'barrel lug' is the whole top of the chamber. How the hell are they shearing that off??? Do you have a link for this?
 
He's got to mean the bottom of the barrel, I sometimes call those lugs as well.

What are they supposed to be called. Still a rare failure, thats a large chunk of metal to break.

Has their armoror been using large hammers or explosives for Glock tuning???
 
Anything can happen , but I too would like to see some info or a link to this. My department issued Glock 22's for years, no problems reported except for worn out magazine springs. We are now using Glock 31's
and still no issues.
If this is true, which I am not saying it isnt, Glock will more than likely replace the pistols. They are offering LE agencies one for one swaps on their old glocks for new ones, so I dont see them shanking the LEOs.
I am not too sure about Glock's customer service for the individual consumer though, as I have yet to hear anything from them over a magazine issue. Its been over a month now and still no word from them.
 
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has a recent memo recalling all S&W M&P pistols for duty/off-duty use, due to recent Academy class experiencing a 47% failure rate and one of the M&P kb'ing with training ammo.
 
Thanks for your interest, gentlemen. I am the Ordnance Officer/Armorer who broadcast the teletype about the G-23 barrel lug failures.

The failures occurred identically to two weapons (CVM460US and CVM478US) in seperate incidents approximately four months apart. Both failed during training, with the operators engaged in a combat course of fire, using Speer Lawman 155gr. TMJ. This agency issues Speer Gold-Dot 155gr. JHP for duty carry. The weapons were ten years old and have had 25k rounds through them.

The barrel lug (or what I, and the Glock rep call the barrel lug) broke-off from the barrel and remained inside the locking block when the weapons were disassembled. The failure rendered the weapons inoperative, and the operators were unable to tap/rack to clear the fail-to-fire. Glock replaced the first gun with a refurbished weapon. They simply replaced everything but the frame and slide on the second gun. Glock provided no failure analysis, nor any other information to reassure the operators of the other ten guns we own between those two serial #s that the failure won't happen to them- particularly in a shoot-out.

I've gotten good feedback from several agencies, none of whom have reported broken lugs. One agency reported broken locking-blocks and another reported sheared locking-block pins, which Glock rectified by installing oversized pins in that agency's guns. Clearly, there are some fairly massive forces at work amongst those components during the firing cycle in the G-22/23 weapon.

Any constructive feedback would be appreciated. Please address Email to my work address: [email protected]
 
???!

I will have to say that that is a very bizarre malfunction to have, to say the least. I believe that this is the first that I've heard of one for any auto-loading pistol.

To clarify, the locking block/locking lug you do indeed mean the entire top of the chamber that locks in to the slide during firing? Also, have you discounted the possibility of out-of-spec ammunition contributing to this failure? I am still struck by the sheer bizarity of such a malfunction.
 
You'd think the manufacturer would be proactive about identifying whether this is an issue common to a specific run of these older G-23s.

A useful way to investigate this would have been to offer Subsailor688 -the PD armorer- to replace all of their G-23s with current models. And buy several cases of the PDs training ammo for separate and concurrent testing.

Then Glock could run the whole bunch of these 10 year-old / +25,000 round guns through non-destructive testing. Gather the data, then test fire them to the point of failure. Glock would then know whether this is an anomaly related to ammo, or that PD's internal practices, or whether a nation-wide safety recall is necessary because of metallurgical problems.
 
Our training department uses the G22. Some work, some don't, they have feeding problems, light primer strikes and so forth. They're just a gun made by a company, why people have choosen them to be the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel I have no clue. Their a good gun but they are by no means the best. Some will have issues and some won't. Even the best made machines will somtimes fail.
 
"To clarify, the locking block/locking lug you do indeed mean the entire top of the chamber that locks in to the slide during firing?"

No. The "Barrel Lug" that I, and Glock, refer to is the portion of the milled barrel that is below the chamber and engages the locking block. The recoil-spring guide is seated against the front face of the lug in it's installed state.

"So Delaware cops are called 'operators' now?"

I'm using a generic term for the "shooter". If that is confusing to you, then it's unlikely you can provide any useful information to me for solving this issue.

"I'm calling Bull ***** on this one."

Feel free. However, I've got two broken barrels and ten officers who saw the malfunctions and are worried that they're carrying paperweights. Denial is not an option for them.

"I'm guessing they somehow (SOMEHOW) chambered a full-house 10mm Auto."

And you'd be wrong. All of the ammunition used by the agency is .40 S&W Speer Lawman 155Gr. TMJ and Speer Gold Dot 155gr. FMJ. I know of no way to "somehow" chamber 10mm in a barrel milled for .40 S&W. The weapon would not go into battery, since there is a 3mm difference in cartridge length.

Guys, I've been a cop for 19 years and a firearms instructor/armorer for ten years. I'm a Glock armorer and I personally own several Glock pistols. I believe in the product, but I've got an issue that I'm trying to find a resolution for: i.e. half of my police force has lost confidence in their sidearm. If you have something constructive to offer, please do so. If you have questions regarding the failures I've outlined, I'll happily answer them. Otherwise, I'll post any developments here and to anyone who sends an email. If you're just here to throw bombs, I simply don't have the time.

Thanks in advance for any useful contributions.
 
I'm using a generic term for the "shooter". If that is confusing to you, then it's unlikely you can provide any useful information to me for solving this issue.
Click to expand...

Pardon me. I've spent quite a few years myself in a profession where 'operators' means something quite different (and I'm not talking AT&T) than 'a generic term for "shooter."' But thank you for taking the time to un-confuse lil ol' me and clear that up.
 
Once the weapon you trust your life to fails it will always leave doubt. I just hope you work in a Agency that doesn't make you carry their weapon of choice.
The agency I work for went to the Glock 22, the Sheriff at the time didn't trust it but it was cheaper than the later I suppose. Up until he left the agency he carried a 1911 Colt and made his deputies carry the Glock.
 
You could order new barrels for all the Glocks in your department, or get aftermarket ones if it's okay with regulations.

Confidence restorer
 
The guns that failed had 25,000 rounds through them?

40 S&W is a pretty high pressure cartridge. That is a lot of rounds not to expect failure.
 
Cpt. America said:
Our training department uses the G22. Some work, some don't, they have feeding problems, light primer strikes and so forth. They're just a gun made by a company, why people have choosen them to be the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel I have no clue. Their a good gun but they are by no means the best. Some will have issues and some won't. Even the best made machines will somtimes fail.
Click to expand...

This. Glocks are probably over 99.9% reliable. If you want 99.99%, get an HK. :p Seriously tho, with over 20K rounds through a gun, imagine hitting a hammer, hard, over 20K times, you've gotta expect something to break. I would definitely say that a gun has a life span, especially a .40. And obviously Glocks are around 25K. You can buy a new barrel I guess but once you hit the 20K mark, I'd probably want to trade it in for a new one, just to make sure that it'll go bang when I need it. I think my life is worth a bit more than that. And if it's a department issued gun, maybe see if you can buy your own barrel at least.
 
That's a hell of a thing to break. If you get any more info, please let us know.

Operator is a term that armorer's use for the person "operating" the firearm. The instructors of all three armorer's course I've taken used the same term.
 
Ok I believe there is a problem

First anyone do a check of the bullets powder? and the weight of the bullets, as well?

This reminds me of the Powder recall folks and it makes me think of the ten mill i loved shooting that a friend of mine had.

What if this is in fact the case the wrong powder was used to practice with the officers reloaded their own with the right box but he company put the wrong powder in the box or the factory got the wrong powder didn't notice it. If it was wrong enough could the powder make the 40 S&W fire out of that gun like a 10 MM?

I personally reload mine 13 years ago but then again i am not a cop.
I load mine close to the red line with gold dot bullets at the time.
45 auto is fun to reload. but the case cleaner is noisy.

Just an idea weather it is fact or fiction has to be proved in a lab.

TSS
 
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